Man sentenced for shooting 'Insane Shane'
Sporting tattoos and an Australian flag singlet, "Insane Shane" was filmed being willingly shot at by his friend in an "idiotic" Jackass-style prank gone wrong.
The Adelaide friend, Michael Ciantar, was spared an immediate jail term on Friday for the type of stunt described by magistrate David Whittle as being "apparently fashionable in some quarters".
The 20-year-old had pleaded guilty in Adelaide magistrates court to discharging a firearm, being reckless as to whether a person would be harmed.
He fired his air rifle at Shane Lewis, nicknamed Insane Shane, wounding him in the upper arm at a Brahma Lodge gathering on February 27.
"What you did carried with it an immediate and very real risk of serious injury," the magistrate said before suspending a six-month jail term and placing him on an 18-month good behaviour bond.
Mr Lewis had asked Ciantar to shoot him, after bragging about pranks on the TV show Jackass and referring to yabbies being placed on his nipples.
"For him, it was a display of machismo," Mr Whittle said.
"You suggested you could shoot him in the bottom, but he wanted to be shot in the arm."
The shooting was filmed by an onlooker on Ciantar's mobile phone.
When Ciantar displays the air rifle, someone asks: "what kind of gun is that Mick?" and laughter greets the reply of: "It's a big one".
After a shot is fired, blood pours from a small wound on the upper arm of Mr Lewis, who then "extended the display of toughness by doing push-ups", noted the magistrate.
The victim did not co-operate with police and he and Mr Lewis lied to hospital staff, saying he was injured in a drive-by shooting.
Mr Whittle said the fact that Ciantar did not realise the risks involved made the offence less serious.
"I assume that your youth and excitement at the earlier discussions on idiotic stunts contributed to your failure to contemplate the obvious risks."
